This is how you start for Jeremy Pruitt.

Talking about Toby Johnson, here’s Pruitt:

“I think he thought he was going to play without practicing very well, and he realized that he wasn’t. So he decided he’d start practicing good. When he practiced good, he played good. So now he’ll get to play more.”

Pretty simple, no?

It’s like the four stages of starting.

Advertisement

Just when I thought I was out, Brian Fremeau pulls me back in.

If you’ve had enough of Georgia’s final offensive possession in Columbia, I would suggest you skip this post.

I’m an avid reader of Football Outsiders, so when I saw that Brian had posted something about the game, I couldn’t resist checking it out.  I wish I hadn’t.  It’s just one depressing stat after another:

1. “But an interception that sets up the offense on the doorstep of the end zone is significant. Swann’s play added 4.9 points of scoring value for Georgia. Had the Bulldogs been able to capitalize with a touchdown, most of the value gained would have belonged to Swann and the defense.In terms of possession value, Georgia had already “taken the lead” on the play. To fail to score a touchdown, or to fail to score at all would be equivalent to taking points off the board.”
2. “On non-garbage possessions since 2007, offenses have scored points on 92.6 percent of drives that began inside the opponent’s 5-yard line. Offenses scored touchdowns on 60.1 percent of drives started at or inside the opponent’s 20-yard line. In the same span leading up to the South Carolina game, Georgia started 20 drives in the red zone and scored a touchdown on 16 of them (80 percent). They scored a touchdown on all six of their non-garbage drives started at or inside the opponent’s 5-yard line from 2007 to 2013.”  [Emphasis added.]
3. “How much is a field-goal attempt worth from the opponent’s 11-yard line? College kickers are successful on approximately 85 percent of attempts from that distance since 2007. A successful kick puts three points on the scoreboard, but only 0.5 of those points are earned by the kicker from that yard line. The other 2.5 points were earned by the units that set up the kick. In this case, Swann’s interception set up 5.8 points of scoring value, and the offense lost 3.3 points. A successful kick would tie the game. An unsuccessful kick would blow the remaining 2.5 points of value the defense had generated.”
4. “Georgia’s net field position-value advantage for the game was 9.4 points. Their net turnover value generated for the game was 8.7 points. Only four teams last season had advantages at least that large in field position and turnovers and still lost the game.”

Soooooo… to sum things up, the defense delivers a play that should have given Georgia the lead, the offense squanders that by doing something a Bobo-coached offense had never done before and Morgan wraps it up.  Now that’s teamwork.

Remember, Dawgs, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

I mentioned in my game review that Pruitt got the better of Spurrier and Thompson on the play that resulted in Swann’s interception.  Over at Dawg Sports, hailtogeorgia breaks down what Pruitt had up his sleeve on that play.

Just think what he’ll be able to do with a little more talent and experience at his disposal.

“… we have to keep learning and educating.”

Can’t Jimbo just outsource this problem to the baseball coach again?

Wednesday morning buffet

Several dishes are filled for your dining pleasure.

• With due respect to Groo, in reference to the playcalling on 1st and goal at the 4, it’s not that we forget how Georgia had scored its previous two touchdowns.  It’s that we remember how the Dawgs scored their first touchdown of the second half.
• Selling the Fainting Goat:  “I was talking to the guy across from me, saying, ‘Wow, there is some thick air down here in Miami,” Mays said.
• Who’s to blame for Kentucky’s less than stellar recruiting over the years?  Would you believe Bear Bryant?
• I don’t know about you, but when I read stories like this, my first thought is Second Chance U.
• Evidently, tall cornerbacks are the thing again in recruiting.
• Jackie Sherrill thinks that 7-on-7 drills have had the biggest impact on college football in the last decade.
• And Derek Mason says, “Patton Robinette is our quarterback.”  Except when he’s not.

‘I don’t know if this was a quality call.’

Not that this is going to make any of us feel better…

Georgia received clarification from the SEC on a couple of controversial officiating calls made in this past Saturday’s loss to South Carolina.

The league office essentially confirmed the correct ruling was made when quarterback Hutson Mason was flagged for grounding on a first-and-goal pass play with five minutes left in the game. Georgia coach Mark Richt declined to share the league’s thoughts on a holding call against Brandon Kublanow that negated a 54-yard touchdown run by Todd Gurley late in the first quarter. However, sources familiar with the communications between the two parties indicate that there should have been no penalty on the play.  [Emphasis added.]

Before you wax too indignant, Mark Richt believes the officials are plenty accountable.

The “loser’s limp”

I’m pretty sure this is a good thing.

Jeremy Pruitt: "The first thing I did (Sunday) was go check the training room to see if we had the loser’s limp and we ain’t got it."

— Anthony Dasher (@AnthonyDasher1) September 17, 2014

LOL.  So how do winners move around?